Although bulk packaging of glass bottles is not necessarily new, innovative approaches for shipping filled containers have increased its utilization.
Bulk packaging works best for cylindrical containers. Odd shapes such as decanters do not have sufficient stability to enable them to be shipped in this manner.
The surface condition of glass is extremely important in high-speed bulk and partitionless packaging systems. Due to the crystalline nature of raw glass, abrasion will occur whenever two such surfaces come into contact. Scratches caused by abrasion establish stress concentration points and can reduce container strength. Surface treatments to provide both abrasion protection and lubricity are a must for glass-to-glass contact.
This surface protection problem also arises when glass contacts metal components on high-speed handling and filling machinery.
For those applications where regulations will not allow glass-to-glass packaging, alternatives have been developed.
One example is the junior partition. This partition is placed between the containers after they have been inserted in the shipping case. It extends toward the sidewall only far enough to pick up the two-point contact on the outer row of containers. It extends upward as far as the upper contact point on the packed containers. This reduction from the full width and height partitions most often encountered can provide for some material savings.
Another development that provides an alternative for those unable to ship in a glass-to-glass configuration is the container having a thin layer of polystyrene foam around the bottle to protect the sides. The foam thickness is sufficient to take the place of partitions in many cases. The container has obtained approvals from the railroads for shipment of several different sizes in partitionless containers for food and beverage items.
One industry that has gone forward in developing and using the glass-to-glass shipping concept are the soft drink bottlers.
One company that has pioneered the soft drink bottle covering and/or label is Owens-Illinois. Some of their patents known to the applicant include:
Rhoades: U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,446 PA0 Karabedian: U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,000 PA0 Karabedian: U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,597 PA0 Rhoades: U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,131
Indeed, there have been many different types of laminates provided for forming labels wherein a foam laminate would be provided with a pressure sensitive adhesive layer thereon normally having a backing sheet applied thereto. In use of the laminate, printed data is applied to the face or top sheet in the laminate, the laminate is cut to desired label width, and provided to the user in suitable roll or other bulk form for removing the backing sheet material and applying the labels to the individual articles.
The big problem associated with all of the foam structures known here-to-fore, such as those recited above and in such other patents as Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,153 and Pesanzo U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,087 is the poor quality of the graphic material.
The general object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved laminate for use in forming labels having high quality graphics.
Another object of the invention is to provide the label forming laminate comprising a clear plastic film top layer adapted to have printed data applied to a layer there beneath and with a foam layer being secured to the intermediate printed layer by an adhesive.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a label forming laminate wherein the components thereof can be conventionally processed and laminated by existing apparatus and be easy to form, cut and use.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of this invention will be made more apparent from the specification and the claims.
While all of the introductory material has used the term "glass to glass" contact, this term is somewhat a misnomer used in the art. Actually the term should be "bottle to bottle", or container to container, as the comments and problems are equally as applicable to plastic containers such as blow moulded polystyrene. Aside from the breakage problem, mere scratching of the surface makes the container less pleasing to the eye of the potential purchaser and thus should be avoided.